December 26 – The Old Reactionary Right Re-Packaged as the Tea Party; Two Washington Insiders on our Broken Government; Senator Sanders on the Supreme Court Empowering Billionaires

Full Program

Part 1

As this year comes to a close, we are looking back on some of the stories that dominated the news in 2013. Today we will focus on the rise and fall of the Tea Party in 2013 and begin with a broadcast of “Background Briefing” from May 16, 2013 when the Tea Party was claiming political victimhood. We analyze the real nature of the Tea Party movement with Chris Parker, the author of a new book “Change They Can’t Believe in: The Tea Party and Reactionary Politics in America”. We discuss his thoroughly researched study of the Tea Party that presents itself as a new revolutionary phenomenon when in fact it is the old reactionary right re-packaged as a grassroots movement. With its funding from billionaires, it is much more the heir to the “Know Nothing Party”, The Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society than to those who inspired the American Revolution.

Part 2

Then from October 2, 2013 we speak with two Washington insiders who wrote the New York Times bestseller “It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided With the New Politics of Extremism”. Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann were among the first to expose the capture of the Republican Party by extremists and we discuss the threat to the constitution posed by Tea Party radicals who want nothing short of unconditional surrender by Barack Obama of his presidency.

Part 3

Then finally from October 8, 2013 we look into arguments before the Supreme Court in McCutcheon versus the FEC that could strike down any remaining limits on spending on candidates and parties. Senator Bernie Sanders, who was in the Supreme Court and later spoke on the steps afterwards, joins us to discuss whether the Court will further empower a few billionaires like those behind the Tea Party shutdown, who are radically altering the American political landscape, moving the country further and further to the right.